Miniaturization of semiconductor devices has called for techniques for testing microscopic device-defects and correcting wiring. In a technique widely used for the testing of device defects, a microscopic test subject portion is cut out from a semiconductor wafer during a device forming process, and the microscopic portion is observed with a transmission electron microscope (TEM).
The microscopic portion is cut out from the semiconductor wafer by etching using a focused ion beam (FIB). The cut out microscopic portion is then observed under a TEM device. The semiconductor wafer after the cutting of the microscopic portion is brought back to the device forming step. The process hole formed when cutting out the microscopic portion is filled by local silicon film deposition using FIB before bringing the semiconductor wafer back to the device forming step. In this way, the FIB ion species injected into the semiconductor wafer by FIB irradiation can be prevented from spreading in the device forming step.
For wire correction, a technique of cutting and connecting wires with a charged particle beam apparatus is known. First, a process hole is formed with FIB around a correction portion. The wire at the correction portion is then cut by etching. This is followed by irradiation of a charged particle beam while supplying a metal-containing gas to form an appropriate metal wire. Finally, the process hole formed around the correction portion is filled by local silicon oxide film deposition using, for example, an electron beam that uses a silane-based gas (Patent Document 1). In this way, the device can operate normally after the wire correction.